of a cowboy song who also won the Medal of Honor. The song was "TheCowboy's Sweet By and By." The decoration came for bringing aid toFort Apache when it was besieged by Geronimo in 1881. In addition tohis other accomplishments, Barnes played a major role in saving from ex-tinction the longhorn, without which this book-and thousands of others-would never have been written. As an officer in the United States ForestService, Barnes got a small appropriation from Congress that enabledhim to travel 5,000 miles, rounding up twenty cows, three bulls, and threesteers in Texas. He shipped them to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refugein Oklahoma, where their numerous progeny can still be seen.The author's greatest contribution is in documenting the complicatedprovenance of popular cowboy songs, such as "Strawberry Roan" and"Home on the Range." He shows how these songs achieved early successand passed into the oral tradition, with the writer often getting ignored.Because of lax observance of copyright laws, editors and compilers of song-books often reprinted lyrics, listing authors as unknown, when the originaleditions showed clearly whose work they were. This problem reflects theclose affinity between the oral tradition and the kind of songs that were de-liberately composed. Another plus for the volume is its splendid illustra-tions of singers, writers, and the music itself.University of Maryland WALTER RUNDELL, JR.Texas In 1776. By Seymour V. Connor. (Austin: Jenkins Publishing Com-pany, 1975. Pp. III. Maps, bibliography, index. $14-95.)As the title suggests, Texas In 1776 is a Bicentennial offering whichtraces the history of Spanish Texas during those years when the Britishcolonies sought and achieved their independence. Although Texas had lostits basic importance to Spain as a buffer against French expansion, its set-tlements had grown and even prospered. Most of its approximately 2,500inhabitants were clustered around the mission settlements of San Antonio,La Bahia, and Isleta on the Rio Grande in far West Texas. The rest werescattered among abandoned missions and decaying presidios from East toSouthwest Texas, a remnant of Spain's futile effort to penetrate the Apachebarrier.Upon the recommendations of the Marquis de Rubi, Spain in 1772consolidated her line of defense with a cordon of presidios along the entirenorthern limits of New Spain. This delimitation of her northern frontierwas a momentous historical event for it gave official recognition to the factthat Spanish conquest had ceased. The closing of the western missions, the